'I feel like an entrepreneur without the company risk'
Entrepreneurial Minds
With seven faculties Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 offers several examples of entrepreneurial minds in all fields of study and research. From teachers and students to alumni and researchers, from Humanities to Bio-Inspired Innovation and often interdisciplinary. The Centre for Entrepreneurship inspires by showcasing the entrepreneurial minds within Utrecht 木瓜福利影视.
Entrepreneurial behaviour is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Law? Then you haven't heard of Willem Janssen yet! In addition to his work as a researcher and very popular lecturer - in 2018 and 2020 he was short-listed for 'Best Lecturer of the Year' - he has had his own podcast for some time now () and in 2020 he initiated a Law Clinic, where excellent students get to work on legal issues of start-ups and scale-ups.
Tell us, a Law Clinic aimed at entrepreneurs from Utrecht region?
The Utrecht Law Clinic connects talented law students to start-ups and scale-ups from the region. For a year, the students gain work experience for about four to eight hours a week, while starting entrepreneurs receive help with sound legal advice or assistance in legal proceedings.
It's nice to see that things you plan for in advance don't always turn out the way you thought they would. For example, we figured that the students should follow workshops first, to train their skills: how do you make ethical decisions, how do you draw up contracts, how do you deal with clients? That is not part of the regular courses.
So the plan was: first training, then consulting. But from the first moment, clients were already at the door, so we started right away. It was a running start for the students, but it was also more fun and more entrepreneurial. During the workshops, we could immediately reflect on a client meeting and work with the students' own examples and questions. In other words, real learning by, and reflecting on, practice.
Have you always been entrepreneurial?
I think so, I have always liked to think up new things and I get a lot of energy out of setting something up myself.
So why did you become a researcher?
If you have a good idea as a researcher, there is always a way to make it work, especially at the Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 School of Law. I see that in all the projects I have done. The reactions are positive and there is room to work on it. That is what I like most about working at the university, the freedom you have. I feel like an entrepreneur without the company risk.
Sometimes I want to go faster than the university can or wants to, or should be able to. And sometimes slowing down is the right thing to do. Reflection is important. I am an academic entrepreneur. I think that is my challenge: at the university, things often take time. But once it is there - it stays for a while.
Academic entrepreneurship is a different kind of entrepreneurship.
Academic entrepreneur?
Yes, academic entrepreneurship is a different kind of entrepreneurship. The motivation is different, for example, it is not for profit. Take the Law Clinic, I do it because I want students to be better equipped in practice, that they learn a lot from real problems of real clients. And I also think Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 gets a lot from the region. We are allowed to live and work here, as students and as staff. We give back through education and research and we can help companies. Especially during this crisis, there is a lot of work to be done.
I think it is great that we are giving something back to the region in a different way. It is a win-win situation: we are partnering with a law firm. We help young entrepreneurs. The university gives back and creates social impact. Students learn from it. It gives me a lot of energy to be involved in this.
Who do you involve in your ideas and projects?
Academic entrepreneurship is inherently a team sport. Academic education and entrepreneurial projects in particular are often teamwork; they require a lot of cooperation.
Academic entrepreneurship is inherently a team sport.
Why do people listen to my podcast? Because I talk to nice and really interesting people. We run the Law Clinic with twelve student-fellows and a whole team of lecturers and lawyers from Van Benthem & Keulen. Projects like this are fun because you do them together. It is a welcome change from the research we do. That is essentially solitary and individualistic, even if it is part of a larger research project.
Should every researcher also become an academic entrepreneur?
It is an incredible shame that a lot of research does not end up where it has the most impact. There are many ways to achieve this, it doesn't have to be a Law Clinic or a podcast. It has to suit you as a researcher. A public lecture, a blog, an opinion article... you name it.
How can we involve a wider audience in our research? How do you do that effectively? Now is the time to stop talking about 'front runners' and 'people who do it naturally'. The question for the future is how public engagement can become a standard part of every researcher's work. It can be super scary to hear your own voice on tape or to write something opinionated in the newspaper, but it is also part of our work. Especially in times of fake news, we have to take our responsibility.